Bob Hughes Strikes Again - Or Why We We Love Drugstore Cowboy.

To shed a little light on our namesake, we present "Drugstore Cowboy" a 1989 film by Gus Van Sant, in which Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon) lives to steal pharmaceuticals for the purposes of resale and personal use. Though we generally pay for our stock, and prefer high quality vintage threads over hospital grade pain killers (no, really) the rest of the story is generally the same.

We shall spare you the usual plot synopsis, which can be easily constructed by watching the film or by clicking here. Set in Portland, Oregon during the seventies (and mostly filmed on location), Drugstore Cowboy is a delicious avocado green spectacular (complete with browns, rust oranges and ocher golds). The wardrobe selection is fantastic, full of stripes, floral patterns and general polyester goodness. Many of the set pieces resemble various items that have populated a multitude of my own apartment living spaces at one time or another. As a bonus, William S. Burroughs has a fantastic cameo with several minutes of screen time (including speaking parts) which always makes me wish That Gus Van Sant had done "Naked Lunch" rather than David Cronenberg.

The most recent DVD edition of Drugstore Cowboy includes commentary by Van Sant and Dillon, albeit ten years after the actual film was made. The track fills in viewers/listeners on some unanswered questions as well as the Popsicle, Scotch tape, glue and string adventure that is independent film making.

A good viewing of Drugstore Cowboy probably isn't going to change your life - but it will give you something to do besides watching "Deer Hunter" on a rainy Sunday.*

* For those of you that don't know, watching "Deer Hunter" on a rainy Sunday is NOT RECOMMENDED and should only be attempted at your own risk - as a final and very last resort - when the seeking of (any) other means of entertainment has failed (completely).

Vintage T-Shirts on Etsy.com

A recent search for "vintage tshirt" (in the clothing and accessories category) on eBay returned 130,561 results. Not only would this take about a day and a half to sift through, the quantity to quality ratio is very poor. Many "retro" or "distressed" items are included in eBay's results as well as "vintage style" and "replica" items. I consider myself a patient person, but by page 15 things can get a bit discouraging.

 The same search on Etsy.com returns 4,336 results (as of this posting) and by page 4, I have already spotted 4 items that I wouldn't mind making my own - if the house payment weren't due on Tuesday.

Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Hawaii Five-O Scavenger Hunt Part 3

Yes, 'tis but another episode of The Hawaii Five-O Scavenger Hunt. As I impatiently await the release of season 7 on DVD (October 20th 2009) I have no problem rolling through 1-6 again (there are quite a few episodes worth more than a single viewing). My camera is bulging with photographs of items I have yet to locate (though, rest assured, while you are asleep: I am constantly searching). I have made a personal commitment to make Etsy.com the primary source of these featured items - it is a smashing good site with lots of fantastic sellers hosting a superb sampling of items from which to choose. To its solid credit, Etsy has a unique feel and flavor similar to that previously possessed by certain e commerce sites - say, oh, about ten years ago. Un-said site(s) will remain unnamed here, as I think we both know who "they" are, and deep down "they" probably know who "they" are anyway -- and perhaps are also none too happy about it. Maybe.

I think the phrase "avocado green ice bucket" really says it all. Come to think of it, when you use "avocado green" to describe anything aside from an actual avocado, you can generally assume that you are dealing with vintage - or retro at the very least. How the varying interior and exterior shades of a tropical fruit (yeah, it's a fruit - I looked it up) came to be the defining colors of a decade is totally beyond me, but I really like avocados so I guess you could say that I have come to terms with the whole ordeal.

This screen shot (above, on the right) is from "The One with the Gun" (original air date 1/28/70). The item of interest is located on top of the fridge on the left side of the photograph. Of course I could have gotten a better close up, but the picture would not be nearly as cool with Steve McGarrett cropped out!

I was actually surprised at how many matches/similar items I found:

And because no worthwhile cocktail serving set exclusively consists of a solitary ice bucket:

Stay tuned, there's more to come.

www.Thriftstore-Cowboy.com

Quad Gods of Prog Rock (and some vintage concert shirts)

Any discussion regarding Progressive Rock (especially as an art form) is bound for disaster, particularly if you happen to be a musician, speaking of the subject with another musician. In such instances, it is better to have the conversation in a private setting, away from family and friends. It is also strongly recommended that both participants remain unarmed (as well as a considerable distance from any object that could conceivably be used as a weapon) and in general each participant should be respectively positioned at a distance of no less than five feet. In addition, such a topic can get pretentious, snooty, abstract and at times downright insulting. So why would I pick such a topic? Because everyone loves controversy. Well, that and the fact that there is some prog rock that I can handle and some that I just -- you get the idea.

Perhaps the obvious first choice is Rush -- the Canadian trio that names songs after fictional literary characters. Rush didn't really start out as a progressive rock band, things just kind of fell together that way. The late seventies were strange times and perhaps prog rock was simply an extension of hard rock's violent recoil from the rising popularity of disco.

This shirt is an original from 1985's "Power Windows" tour. Granted, much of the 80's for Rush was defined by synthesizers as opposed to their guitar driven hard rock beginnings, but you can't really get mad at a band for evolving. People were genuinely upset by Bob Dylan's shift to electrified rock, moving away from the folky acoustic Woody Guthrie style social protest songs that had come to define his work. But in hindsight, such a move was absolutely wise because it not only showcases Dylan's versatility but has also made him more accessible to subsequent generations. Just about everyone knows who Bob Dylan is or at the very least has heard of him -- unless you happen to be a cop in New Jersey on a rainy day. To stay alive sharks constantly swim forward. Obviously, there are varying points of view on this -- and even though some folks truly want the same thing over and over again in terms of their entertainment consumption, you really should give a new album three listens (without distraction) and preferably with headphones before deleting it from your iPod playlist(s). If your initial opinion doesn't change by the third time around, put it away for a while and then give it another shot. Maybe it is my personal form of brainwashing, but I have come to love many albums using the "three listen" method -- which can also be applied to films, though in such cases headphones are optional.

This Jethro Tull concert shirt is actually from the band's folk rock era ("Bursting Out" tour 1978), but for the sake of continuity I shall remain on the prog rock topic. From 1972 - 1976 the band entered what many consider its progressive rock phase. I say "phase" because I don't totally agree with the notion that Jethro Tull is essentially a prog rock band. Like Rush, their beginnings are rooted in hard rock - a contained four year period of experimentation can hardly define the band's entire 40+ year career. This may, however, further prove my theory that progressive rock was indeed a violent recoil from disco.

Completely disregarding the early 1980's (COMPLETELY), Yes is one of my favorite prog rock bands. Yes started and will end as indispensable prog rock pioneers (again, completely disregarding the early 1980's).

Ironically, this raglan concert jersey is from the early 1980's, but it is currently the best Yes item in our store, so here it shall be presented. Totally embarrassed by the outright contradictions throughout my own carefully crafted blog post, I will move on to my favorite item.

This shirt is one of my absolute favorites, among the thousands of items we have had/sold in the past. It is original, from the "Works" tour in 1977 and utterly cool (pardon my regression to teenage parlance). The collective album cover art of "Brain Salad Surgery" (art work originally done by H. R. Gieger, who also did art design for the first Alien film), "Tarkus", and "Emmerson, Lake & Palmer" make this shirt both indespensible and more for the framing and hanging (and less for the wearing).

Emmerson, Lake & Palmer is probably the premier progressive rock band. Hands down, with no exception. Rush & Yes (completely disregarding the 1980's) fans may be upset and riled to the point of violence - and though I cannot honestly say who would win a bar room brawl amongst the three bands -- my comment still stands.

Two radio friendly singles "Lucky Man" & "From the Beginning" had 1970's record album consumers wondering why the music contained on the rest of ELP's albums sounded nothing like the singles. I guess it is kind of a mean surprise -- you think you are buying some sweet Alvin Lee's Ten Years After and actually get "Tubular Bells." But such is progressive rock.

On a side note, "From the Beginning" has a similar intro to "Roundabout" by Yes so that during call-in radio contests asking listeners to identify a song based on a short riff, the two are constantly confused.

www.Thriftstore-Cowboy.com